Alive, Well, and Obsessive As Ever
by The Crow of Battle
Summary: Yet another story concerning the return of a... certain fighter on the Toguro team. Three guesses who.


Disclaimer: Yuu Yuu Hakusho is not now, never was, and never will be mine.  There you have it.

A/N: So, this is one of these I've-only-seen-up-to-the-end-of-the-Ankoku-Bujutsukai-so-I'm-going-to-cheerfully-ignore-almost-everything-that-comes-after-it-at-least-for-now fics.  'Kay?  'Kay.  Also, Karasu's in it, and, well, he's Karasu, so at some point there will probably be some shounen ai, possibly of a rather dark, warped and bizarre fashion.  And depending on where this goes, the rating may be upped to R at a later date.  Thou hast been warned.  

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Prologue:

_The ferrygirl in question was new to the job.  And rather naïve, and, regrettably, a bit flaky._

_And the demon whose ghost she had been sent to escort to Reikai to face judgement was a very... _persuasive_ sort when he wanted to be.  Dangerously so._

_A young and naïve flake meeting with this particular dangerously persuasive demon had not, in retrospect, been a wonderful plan.  These things are always very obvious after the fact, but the situation had been a bit hectic and all anyone could say was that it had seemed like a good idea at the time.   Reikai had been a bit more concerned with their prince's possible death in the final round of the Ankoku Bujutsukai than with the fate of a few mere demons._

_Well, everyone knows how marvelously clear hindsight is.  _

_Long story short, one demon's ghost and one ferrygirl never quite made it back to Reikai…._

* * * * *

It was raining.

This was, in fact, an understatement.  It looked like one could have drowned oneself just by standing out in the open for a few minutes.  Blinding bolts of lightning arced across the sky from time to time, quickly followed by loud rumblings and claps of thunder.

Kurama stared out his bedroom window and frowned.  Often when the weather was bad, Hiei would come to the Kurama's room to get out of the rain, but there had been no sign of him.  The kitsune hoped that the antisocial little demon had found some shelter somewhere; this was definitely not a night for sleeping in trees no matter _how_ damned masochistic one was.

…Not that he would have phrased it _quite_ like that, perhaps.  Not to Hiei's face.  But at the very least, the fire demon did have a penchant for unnecessary stoicism.  It was a little bit worrisome at times – Hiei could take care of himself just fine, Kurama knew, but if ever he _couldn't_, he would probably die before ever admitting to any need for help. 

And if help was offered without asking, he might well die before willingly accepting it, though he frequently mocked the same trait in others.  …Would die before accepting help from most people, at least.  From Kurama… it was hard to say.  It would likely depend on the situation.  But they were close friends (whether Hiei admitted it or not) and at least Kurama had more chance of getting through to him than anyone else did.  Thus the kitsune tried to be there for his friend when he could be.

He was _not_, however, venturing out into a torrential downpour in search of said friend.  Not on a school night.  He'd had enough excitement lately, what with the recently ended Ankoku Bujutsukai – sowing a death plant in his own blood, nearly being beaten to death, nearly being blown into a million small and bloody pieces in the final round….  He gave a short, dry laugh as he found himself mentally ticking the list off on his fingers.  Well, he wasn't going to add drowning and being fried by lightning to that list.  It was a little odd that Hiei hadn't shown up, given the extreme weather, but there were plenty of reasonable possibilities for why this was the case.  And the fire demon _could _take care of himself.

Yeah.

…Remember that thing about hindsight?

* * * * *

Hiei shivered slightly, clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering.  He was soaked to the skin.

There was no one around to see if his teeth _had_ chattered, but that wasn't the point.  It was the principle of the thing.  He was not going to be brought down by some pathetic rainstorm.  With some effort, he stopped his shivering as well.  In most cases, cold did not bother him at all – he _was_ a fire demon – but rain was an exception.  

He had been asleep high in the branches of a tree, after nightfall, in a relatively secluded corner of a local park, when the storm had come up suddenly.  To his great chagrin, it had caught him by surprise, something that _shouldn't _have happened.  Careless.  He was spending too much time around humans.  He had briefly considered going to Kurama's house for shelter, but that haven was some distance away.  And even had it not been, he was not going to reward his own foolish lapse in concentration by spending the night in a warm, soft, comfortable bed.  (Kurama, being Kurama, would undoubtedly have insisted that Hiei take the bed, given the frozen cold state he was in.)  Or even with a cup of – what was that ningen drink Kurama liked to make?  Oh, yes – hot chocolate, that was it.  

Instead, he'd taken refuge in the first uninhabited place he could find, which upon inspection had proved to be a warehouse of some sort.  It was little warmer inside than out, but at least it was dry.

Granted, a cup of hot chocolate would have been welcome right now… he caught himself thinking this, and stopped, shaking his head.  Hn.  He _was_ spending too much time around humans.  

Gradually he began to dry off, and his body temperature was able to raise itself a bit, further speeding the drying process.  Steam rose as the water in his cloak and hair evaporated, and he began to feel better.  After wandering the building a bit, he finally settled on jumping up into the rafters to rest on one of the wider beams.  It wasn't a tree branch, but it was close enough.  Finally settling down more-or-less comfortably, he closed his eyes.  It was the middle of the night; it would be several hours before any foolish humans came in here.  Even if they did, he could be awake and gone long before they noticed him.  Hopefully the storm would pass by the time he had to leave.  In the meantime, he could get a few hours sleep.

He didn't sense the explosion until it hit him.  At which point, it was rather too late.

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Ed: Reviews are good.  Ed _likes_ reviews. ^_^ 

A/N: …Don't ask me how Ed got in there.  She just did.  She's a super-powerful child-genius hacker, she can do these things…. --;; At any rate, she knows what she's talking about.  Listen to her wise words and obey. ^_^

Another Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop _or_ Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth.  …However you spell that.


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